Dueling demonstrations: Groups rally in Albany for and against Marcellus Shale drilling

Jan. 25, 2010

Members of the the Landowner Coalitions from New York's Southern Tier, and its supporters, gather across the NYS Capital building to hold a rally in support of natural gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale on Monday. / STEVE JACOBS / Gannett

Written by

Cara Matthews

Albany Bureau

ALBANY - It was the environment versus the economy in Albany Monday as hundreds of people for and against drilling in the Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier, Catskills and central New York brought their messages to the Capitol.

Robert Moore, a resident of Port Crane, Broome County, said New York is "running people out of the state" because of high taxes. Natural-gas exploration using horizontal wells and a process called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", is safe, and the economic-development benefit would be great, he said.

"The jobs would be astronomical," said Moore, 49, adding, "Without it, we're done."

Joyce Lovelace of Ithaca, who spoke after a rally organized by environmental groups, said she doesn't think the jobs that the drilling would bring to the area would be long term or would be filled by local people.

"I don't think that this is worth any amount of money because once our ground water is polluted, we can't unpollute it," she said.

Lovelace, a former farm owner in southern Cayuga County, said she signed a lease for gas rights and later learned that well drilling would be much more concentrated than she was told originally. If catchment basins leaked, fluids moving through the shale would destroy its integrity and endanger health and safety, she said.

The Marcellus Shale is a black shale formation that travels deep underground from Ohio and West Virginia northeast into Pennsylvania and southern New York, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The agency is evaluating public comments on its draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement for horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing to develop the shale.

Ralliers at both demonstrations held signs, many of them using the word "fracking" -- "No Frackin' Way and "Lethal Infraction" for the anti-drillers and "Stop the Frackin' Lies" from the pro-drillers.

Randall Slimak of Horseheads, Chemung County, held a sign that said "My land. My gas." as he waited in the pouring rain in Lafayette Park, near the Capitol, for the pro-drilling rally to begin. Slimak, a physician who owns forestland, said he and other landowners think of themselves as the original conservationists. The Department of Environmental Conservation's drilling rules are the most restrictive of any state, he said.

"I support natural gas exploration. It's a source of jobs and revenue," he said.

Meanwhile, environmental and conservation groups said in a statement that the proposed drilling "is arguably the most pressing threat to the health of the state's environment." They claim fracking has poisoned wells and spilled toxic chemicals in other parts of the country.